Teddy Bear
by AfroKane
Summary: “I miss him.”She said. “What?” “I mean, I miss my teddy bear.”She said remorsefully. [GaaraSakura] [One-shot]


**Teddy Bear **

_By Afrokane_

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Noooope.

* * *

"Did you see my teddy bear?" she asked, hands busy with searching every single corner of her room.

"……"

He rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed by her ridiculous behaviour. Really, how old was she already? A **teddy bear**? Did she honestly want to bring her tiny little teddy bear to an A- rank mission?

As if she could read his mind, she turned to face him.

"Look, Gaara. I know it sounds ridiculous, but this teddy bear is very special to me…it was a gif—"

"Whatever. Time is up. We have to go now." he was not interested in the whatsoever history of her teddy bear.

_How rude_, she rolled her eyes. Something just would not change no matter what. She thought he would be more social and would be a little bit more open after spending a significant time with her and Naruto over these years. But clearly, things were not going the way she thought it would be.

"Fine. Let's go then." She picked up her things, silently wished that her teddy bear would appear magically after she came back from her mission.

* * *

Gaara found himself was indeed a very _patient _person.

Yes, _patient_. _**Very **patient_, he had to emphasize that.

"You know, I am suspecting that it's Naruto. I just remembered that I toke one of his instant ramen last week. Maybe he finds out. You know, he always keeps track of his ramen stock. What do you think?" She asked, while chafed her hands to generate some warmth in the snow storm.

He snorted. How come he had to stick with this Haruno Sakura or that Uzumaki Naruto in almost every single joint mission with the Leaf during the past years?

"I don't know."

"And you know what, he knows that teddy bear is very important to me. It gotta be him." She gritted her teeth, as if she had really witnessed Naruto stole her teddy bear.

He glanced at her. What was the matter with her? She has been non-stop talking about this teddy bear of hers for the past 12 hours. He swore, if it was not her, he would have killed her already before they could reach their destination.

His trace of thought was broken when she jerked closer to him.

"What?" he asked, body tensed up a little when sensing her trembling shoulder touched his.

"It's cold." She said, wrapping her arms firmly around her body.

"Aa." He said, feeling a bit confused for his sudden rise in temperature despite the fact that they were trapped inside a cave in a wild snow storm.

"Ne, Gaara."

"What?"

"Would you mind if I ….I borrow your arm a little while? It's really damn cold."

He raised his brow. Borrow his arm? How interesting. That was the 1st time he have heard such a request. After all these years, after he had stopped his habit of killing people, there was still no one dared to even come close to him.

_Monster._ That was what they called him.

Suddenly, he felt her freezing arms slipped around his left arm and her body pressed closer against his.

He looked down and fixed his eyes on hers. Green eyes, pink hair. For some strange reasons, he loved her features. She gave him a feeling that she was similar and paralleled to his green eyes and red hair. Only they were a lighter and softer version of his.

And he also loved the passion that held in her eyes. When it came to her comrades, her eyes would sparkle with the determination to protect and support them. He could never forget his fight with the team several years ago in which she had reminded him of his past and had triggered his emotion all of a sudden.

"What?" she asked, while sensing a pair of eyes fixed on her.

"I thought you were asking my permission to borrow my arm." He narrowed his eyes. He really was amazed at her guts.

"I thought silence mean yes from you." She smiled—no, she smirked. She even dared to _smirk_. No one, not even Temari, could be that open when dealing with him.

See, she understood him. Silence, certainly did not mean yes for everything. Yet, this Haruno Sakura was smart enough to figure out when he meant yes and when he meant no. And that was probably why he could still tolerate her. After all, except Naruto, no one could understand him that thoroughly. Not even Kankuro. Not even Temari.

"Ne, Gaara."

"What?"

"It's really cold."

"I know."

"I wish my teddy bear is with me." She said, while dropping her head on his shoulder.

"……" He rolled his eyes. Not again.

"I miss him." She said.

"What?" She missed who?

"I mean, I miss my teddy bear." She said remorsefully.

"…..enough, Haruno Sakura. Stop the teddy bear thing." He said irritably.

She startled a bit when she heard his obviously irritated tone.

"…fine, fine." She pouted. She just wanted to start some conversations with him during this long journey to the Sand in this stupid snow storm. If he did not like it, then she would shut up.

Gaara felt somewhat uncomfortable while he saw her lips twitched down a little bit. This girl was very capable in influencing his emotion. Yet, he decided to put it aside as he also started to feel numb in this wild snow storm.

* * *

Twenty minutes has past since their last conversation. The snow storm had become wilder and even Gaara's temperature had started to drop.

"Sakura."

"Yes?"

"Are you still cold?" he asked, eyes still fixing at the spot that he was watching for the past ten minutes.

"Of course. You are starting to freeze too." She answered, hands rubbing around Gaara's arm. "Should we—"

She stopped as the environment around them suddenly changed. All she could see now was darkness, and the sound of the blowing wind was muted as if they were trapped in a vacuumed room.

Her mind and muscles perked up against the abrupt change. Was it a genjutsu? Were they trapped by some enemies?

"Calm down, Sakura. It's me." Said Gaara.

"What the—" Realization hit her when her eyes started to resume their function. She could see the faint outline of Gaara's figure, and a dome shaped wall that had separated them from the world outside. She reached out her hand, and found out that the texture of the wall was something mixed of grain and sand.

So it was Gaara. He had used his sand to put up a wall around them in order to keep them warm.

She let out a sigh of relieve.

"Gaara—I must tell you in this stupid snow storm you cannot maintain this for a long time. Your charkra will deplete quickly." She warned him, while she could not stop her mouth from twitching up a bit for his consideration.

"I know. I will put it down after 10 minutes." He said.

She snuggled up a little bit towards his body.

"Ne, Gaara."

"What?"

"Thank you."

"…….I am cold too." If there was some light around them, Sakura would saw clearly that his cheek had turned into a tint of pink.

She smiled.

"You know what, Gaara. Sometimes I think you are like my teddy bear."

"…..stop it."

"Yeah it's true. You know my teddy bear is red, and I love to talk him and he never gives me any response. And he is warm and comfortable to hug especially in winter."

Should he be grateful or what? Gaara, the monster of the Sand, looked like a teddy bear?

His lips twitched up a little bit.

"I once have a teddy bear too." He said, before he realized what he had turned himself into.

She startled at his sudden confession. "Ah? Really?"

"….ah. Just forget it." He snorted, feeling regret at his lack of control. After all, it was not something that ninja should talk about when they were trapped in the snow storm during an A-rank mission.

But, that was too late. Once you had made Haruno Sakura curious, no one could stop her from using whatever method to satisfy her curiosity.

"Was it red in color too?" she asked, head tilted up to met Gaara's eyes.

"…yes."

"How big was it?"

"….similar to yours." He had no idea why he was still participating in this teddy bear conversation.

"..Oh! How cute. Did you name it? Did you hug it to sleep every night? Is—"

"No—Yes—and stop it. It's stupid to talk about teddy bear." He half snapped.

"Oh…..is it?" she said, feeling disappointed.

"Yes." He said irritably.

"Ne, Gaara."

"…stop it."

"Just two more? Two more questions and I will shut up." She tugged his sleeve, like a child demanding candies from her mom.

"……" Patient. He reminded himself. Be patient.

"Is the teddy bear still here?" she asked.

"No." He said. The teddy bear had been destroyed by him after the bloody incident happened.

"Do you….miss it?" she asked softly.

"……." He made no response, as he seemed to fall deeply into his own thought.

"I see. Me too." She said. She was glad that he finally was opening up to her. Gaara, the monster of Sand, was a human after all. After two years of partnership with him, she actually found out that he did possess a kindred heart and was capable to love. It was just his tragic past had lead him to what he had became today. It was just like Sasuke, like Neji, and like Naruto.

She understood him completely, just like she understood Sasuke and Naruto thoroughly.

She loved him with all of her heart, just like how she loved Sasuke all these years.

Her heart skipped a bit when she realized what she had trapped herself into—

_She loved him, with all of her heart, just like what she loved **Sasuke** all these years._

Where was **_Naruto_** in that sentence?

Gone?

What could that mean?

She frowned a little bit and decided to put it aside first. It was not the right time to think about this when they were in an A-rank mission.

"Sakura?"

"Yes?"

"…..are you ok?" he asked, as he started to feel regret to snap at her like that. He found out that he did care very much about this girl, which was a very rare thing for him to do. He wondered, was it love that Naruto had told him constantly? Did he love her? Just like the way he loved Naruto, as a comrade?

No, probably not. There was something different. What, for his lack of experience in dealing with people, he could not comprehend. He had realized this strange feeling towards this girl for some time already and he still could not figure out what could that mean.

Therefore, he decided and had put it aside for the past few years. He thought time would eventually figure it out.

His trace of thought was interrupted when he felt a pair of arms wrapped around his neck. He could feel her body pressed around his chest and her head buried into his shoulder.

His body tensed, and then relaxed as he felt warmness slipped into his body, even into his heart.

This feeling was alien to him.

He didn't know that it feel so good to be hugged by somebody.

He smiled, and before he realized it, his arms were already embracing the little body.

And he had to admit that it felt good to hug somebody too.

"Ne, Gaara." She smiled.

"….what?"

"I think I can be your teddy bear for the next five minutes." She said, feeling more comfortable from the heat radiated from his body.

"….shut up." He smiled, while his hand caressed her soft hair softly for the first time.

* * *

Somewhere in Konoha….

"Naruto-kun….I think it's not good to do this…" a white eye girl said uncomfortably.

"Nahh, don't worry, Hinata-chan. She deserves this." Said a blonde hair boy.

"But…. Sakura-chan will kill you for this. This teddy bear is very important to her. It was a gift from her grandpa." Hinata said.

"Well, that was her fault anyways. Who tell her to steal a pack of my ramen last week? And she thought that I don't know? That's lame. I keep track of my ramen stock!" he retorted, as he started to stick a giant label on a red teddy bear.

"But…." Hinata stopped and started to giggle when she saw what had written on the label.

"No buts, Hinata-chan. Let's go now. She will come back next week and let's see how she will react." He smiled wickedly as he finished decorating the said teddy bear and transported it back to its home.

As said, they left the room through the window, leaving a beautifully (?) decorated teddy bear on a comfortable bed.

—END—

* * *

A/N:

Yes. It's me again. I am crazy about GaaSaku pairing after reading some amazing fics about this pair. And I was itched to write one so here is it.

As always, please tell me what you think. And please excuse my grammatical errors, as I am not closed enough to anyone to be my beta reader.

Hope you enjoy this.

Oh, and yes….please read on below for a little … "**sequel**" for this fic.

* * *

A week later, a certain pink hair girl screamed when she found out what happened to her dearest teddy bear, named _Gaara_ (for this month).

"NO! That DAMNNED NARUTO! I'm gonna kill him!" She screamed again while picked up _Gaara_ violently.

A red hair boy, on the other hand, smirked as he had witnessed the whole violent scene.

"So, you are right." He said.

"DAMN!" She hissed, trying to remove the label from _Gaara_.

He smirked again.

"Stop it, Gaara. Stop your ugly smirk." She glared at him.

"Sorry, I can't help. That label is sure…..interesting." he said.

She rolled her eyes, and then put the label on her desk.

"I will MAKE SURE Naruto will pay for it." She said.

"….sure." he said, eyes fixing on the ugly writing on the label.

**_I promise not to steal NARUTO'S ramen forever. F.O.R.E.V.E.R._**

—END—

* * *

Ah…how's that :D 


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